Vol. I · Spring MMXXVI · Cover No. 04
I figure out
songs by ear.
Then I show my work.
Classical, jazz, pop, video game, anime, film. An overhead camera, a Kawai CA-99, and a pianist’s notebook.
01Covers
across genres.
across genres.
02Free 7-day
ear training.
ear training.
03The full
method — a course.
method — a course.
Latest: Moonlight Sonata, 1st mvt.
Beethoven · Op. 27 №2 · C♯ minor
How I heard this
The famous triplet figure isn't the melody — it's the weather. I spent an afternoon trying to play it without looking at the score and realized the whole piece is organized around the bass-line's slow half-step descent. Everything on top is ornament. Once I stopped chasing the surface and committed to the pedal tone, the rest arrived on its own.
C♯ minor · ~54 BPM · ◉◉◉◉◯ difficulty to hear Read the full notes →
Recent covers
Headshot
The notebook’s keeper
Classically trained pianist, software engineer, ear-first convert.
I learned piano at five, recorded my first album at fourteen, and spent my twenties getting very good at reading music and very bad at hearing it. Over the years I’ve played for weddings, funerals, and church services — these days mostly for the joy of it, a pianist in the middle path.
Read the full story →A notebook for players in the middle path — mine included.
— The house line
From the notebook
THEORY · FUNCTION · 6 min read
Why V–I Feels Like Home
I spent twenty years playing V–I without hearing it. Then a jazz teacher asked me to sing the resolution, and the whole tonal system finally showed up.
THEORY · HARMONIC MOTION · 7 min read
The Hidden Circle of Fifths
The circle isn't a diagram on the wall of the theory classroom. It's the underlying current of a huge percentage of what we actually hear — once you learn to listen for it.
THEORY · CHROMATIC COLOR · 5 min read
Hearing the Neapolitan in Beethoven
The ♭II chord is the one that made me realize borrowed harmony isn't an exotic flavor — it's a shortcut to somewhere the diatonic universe can't quite reach.